Jocelyn Bartkevicius, Ph.D.

Jocelyn Bartkevicius studied literary fiction and nonfiction writing at The University
of Iowa, nonfiction writing at the Bennington Writing Seminars, and completed a
doctoral dissertation on the essays of Virginia Woolf. Her stories and essays have appeared in anthologies
and such journals as The Iowa Review,
The Missouri Review, The Bellingham Review, Fourth Genre, The Hudson Review, Gulf Coast,
and TriQuarterly Online. She has won several teaching awards and her essays have been awarded prizes from several literary journals. She is the former editor of The Florida Review and former director of the MFA program in creative
writing. She is completing a book on the convergence of American Burlesque and Soviet deportation and prison camps.

This course builds upon the
writing, reading, and workshopping skills learned in CRW 3013, Introduction to
creative writing. Some writers brand new to literary nonfiction may be under
the (false) impression that it is all about facts, a kind of
cross between researched journalism and report writing. Actually, literary
nonfiction is very much like fiction writing: It is about creating stories,
characters, and places. The main difference between writing fiction and
literary nonfiction is this: The fiction writer can invent, can make stuff up.
The literary nonfiction writer can use every other aspect of craft, but not
invention. In some ways, literary nonfiction can also resemble poetry. Flash
nonfiction often reads much like a prose poem.

We will explore these aspects of
literary nonfiction through craft studies, introductory exercises, longer works
of writing, and workshop. Reading is expected to include Tell It Slant, edited by Brenda Miller and Suzanne Paola, The Boys of My Youth, by Jo Ann Beard,
and selected online nonfiction journals.

This is a workshop-based course in
literary nonfiction (memoir, personal essay, and—in some semesters—literary
journalism). We’ll focus on craft-based discussions of new student writing and
studies of selected published works as a way of informing our understanding of
craft. Students will write sketches, full manuscripts, and craft studies.
Reading is expected to include: The Boys
of My Youth, by Jo Ann Beard; The
Best American Essays 2013, edited by Cheryl Strayed; A Self Made of Words, by Carl Klaus, and selected online journals
of nonfiction.

19294

LIT6076

Studies in Cont Nonfiction

Face to Face Instruction (P)

Tu 07:30 PM - 10:15 PM

Not Online

The Art of Witness: Or,
Writing an American Life

In “How to Write a True War Story,” Tim O’Brien suggests
that the best way to tell the truth is to fictionalize. Throughout the entire
collection, The Things They Carried,
O’Brien explores how direct experience and observation might mingle with
fiction to convey the heart and soul of human experience. Over the course of the semester
we’ll consider this and related ideas about contemporary nonfiction.

We’ll
start by considering the nature of narrative prose, and the “line” between
nonfiction and nonfiction. We’ll explore the role that memory and perception
play in creating effective prose narratives, and how writers interweave
history, culture, class, social justice, war, and other matters into their
artistic renderings of the lives they are living. We’ll also examine how
a book can be built from individual or related essays as well as a variety
approaches to crafting book-length memoirs, graphic narratives, and subject- or
adventure-centered works.

In addition to O’Brien’s book, the
reading is expected to include Tara Westover’s Educated; Marcia Aldrich’s Companion
to An Untold Story; Trevor Noah’s Born
a Crime; Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home;
Richard Blanco’s The Prince of Loss
Cocuyos: A Miami Childhood; Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential; Jo Ann Beard’s The Boys of My Youth; Dinty Moore’s Between Panic and Desire; John D’Agata’s Next American Essay; Roxanne Gay’s Hunger, William Finnegan’s Barbarian
Days: A Surfing Life; and After
Montaigne, a collection edited by David Lazar and Patrick Madden.

During the semester, writing projects will include sketches,
imitations, brief reflections. Students can choose a final project in the form
of a conference presentation and related craft essay (designed for Poets and Writers or AWP’s Writer’s Chronicle), or a creative
project with accompanying exploratory essay.

This is a workshop-based course in
literary nonfiction (memoir, personal essay, and—in some semesters—literary
journalism). We’ll focus on craft-based discussions of new student writing and
studies of selected published works as a way of informing our understanding of
craft. Students will write sketches, full manuscripts, and craft studies.
Reading is expected to include: The Boys
of My Youth, by Jo Ann Beard; The
Best American Essays 2013, edited by Cheryl Strayed; A Self Made of Words, by Carl Klaus, and selected online journals
of nonfiction.

81547

CRW6025

Adv Graduate Writing Workshop

Face to Face Instruction (P)

Tu 07:30 PM - 10:15 PM

Not Online

This is a workshop course in
literary nonfiction. We’ll focus on craft-based discussions of new writing,
with a few conversations about selected published works as a way of informing
our understanding of craft. You will be asked to write new work for the
workshop portion of this class. Stand-alone essays (or short, self-contained
memoirs) are preferred. Chapters of your memoir may be negotiated if are
submitted with context-setting information. You’ll be encouraged take risks, to
see your writing as hard work, but rewarding work. To take the time to explore
new approaches, to work beyond the down times, to be brave. To that end, from
time to time you may be invited to write sketches to supplement the workshop
manuscripts. The final project will be an additional new piece or a thorough
revision of one of the workshop pieces. An informal essay about your work during
the semester will accompany that writing project.

During our workshop discussions,
we'll discuss and critique manuscripts in terms of craft (that is, their
structure, style, strength of characterization, voice, etc.). In reading and
commenting on classmates' work, one goal of course is to collaborate in helping
each writer become the best he or she can be. Another goal of commenting:
learning to be a good editor and critic gives you skills and objectivity that
you can later apply to drafts of your own.

This is a workshop-based course in
literary nonfiction (memoir, personal essay, and—in some semesters—literary
journalism). We’ll focus on craft-based discussions of new student writing and
studies of selected published works as a way of informing our understanding of
craft. Students will write sketches, full manuscripts, and craft studies.
Reading is expected to include: The Boys
of My Youth, by Jo Ann Beard; The
Best American Essays 2013, edited by Cheryl Strayed; A Self Made of Words, by Carl Klaus, and selected online journals
of nonfiction.

This is a workshop-based course in
literary nonfiction (memoir, personal essay, and—in some semesters—literary
journalism). We’ll focus on craft-based discussions of new student writing and
studies of selected published works as a way of informing our understanding of
craft. Students will write sketches, full manuscripts, and craft studies.
Reading is expected to include: The Boys
of My Youth, by Jo Ann Beard; The
Best American Essays 2013, edited by Cheryl Strayed; A Self Made of Words, by Carl Klaus, and selected online journals
of nonfiction.

11410

CRW5130

Form & Theory in Creative Wr

Mixed-Mode/Reduce Seat-Time(M)

M 07:30 PM - 09:00 PM

Not Online

Focusing on craft—especially style and structure—we’ll read works
by writers who have crossed genre. Our explorations will include the following:
Writers who have interrogated the same subject in more than one genre; Writers
who push the borders of genre in a single work; Writers who revisit and
transform another writer’s work in a new genre, and more.

Assignments will include vigorous class discussion, brief
studies of craft, imitation exercises, and a final creative project.

Books are expected to include the following:

·
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi’s, Americanah (novel)
and We Should All Be Feminists (essay
and Ted Talk);

·
Lidia Yuknavitch’s, On the Small Backs of Children (novel) and The Chronology of Water (memoir);

·
Jane Smiley’s A Thousand Acres (novel),
David Denby’s “Queen Lear, (essay)” and William Shakespeare’s King Lear (play or film).

·
Essays and stories by David Foster Wallace.

·
John Updike’s Self-Consciousness (memoir) and selected short fiction.

·
Kathryn Harrison’s The Kiss (memoir) and Exposure
(a novel)

Course Number

Course

Title

Mode

Date and Time

Syllabus

80862

CRW3211

Creative Nonfiction Writing

World Wide Web (W)

Not Online

CRW 3211.0W61: Creative Nonfiction Writing
(Bartkevicius)

PR: Successful Completion of CRW 3013.

This course builds upon the writing, reading, and workshopping skills learned in CRW 3013, Introduction to creative writing. Some writers brand new to literary nonfiction may be under the (false) impression that it is all about facts, a kind of cross between researched journalism and report writing. Actually, literary nonfiction is very much like fiction writing: It is about creating stories, characters, and places. The main difference between writing fiction and literary nonfiction is this: The fiction writer can invent, can make stuff up. The literary nonfiction writer can use every other aspect of craft, but not invention. In some ways, literary nonfiction can also resemble poetry. Flash nonfiction often reads much like a prose poem.
We will explore these aspects of literary nonfiction through craft studies, introductory exercises, longer works of writing, and workshop. Reading is expected to include Tell It Slant, edited by Brenda Miller and Suzanne Paola, The Boys of My Youth, by Jo Ann Beard, and selected online nonfiction journals.

81644

CRW3211

Creative Nonfiction Writing

World Wide Web (W)

Not Online

CRW 3211.0W62: Creative Nonfiction Writing
(Bartkevicius)

PR: Successful Completion of CRW 3013.

This course builds upon the writing, reading, and workshopping skills learned in CRW 3013, Introduction to creative writing. Some writers brand new to literary nonfiction may be under the (false) impression that it is all about facts, a kind of cross between researched journalism and report writing. Actually, literary nonfiction is very much like fiction writing: It is about creating stories, characters, and places. The main difference between writing fiction and literary nonfiction is this: The fiction writer can invent, can make stuff up. The literary nonfiction writer can use every other aspect of craft, but not invention. In some ways, literary nonfiction can also resemble poetry. Flash nonfiction often reads much like a prose poem.
We will explore these aspects of literary nonfiction through craft studies, introductory exercises, longer works of writing, and workshop. Reading is expected to include Tell It Slant, edited by Brenda Miller and Suzanne Paola, The Boys of My Youth, by Jo Ann Beard, and selected online nonfiction journals.

This is a workshop-based course in literary nonfiction (memoir, personal essay, and—in some semesters—literary journalism). We’ll focus on craft-based discussions of new student writing and studies of selected published works as a way of informing our understanding of craft. Students will write sketches, full manuscripts, and craft studies. Reading is expected to include: The Boys of My Youth, by Jo Ann Beard; The Best American Essays 2013, edited by Cheryl Strayed; A Self Made of Words, by Carl Klaus, and selected online journals of nonfiction.